Thursday, September 8, 2011

We interrupt this week of reruns to bring the news that Manhattan was bombed last night--by Jay Shells' newest urban etiquette signs.

all photos by Jason Shelowitz

From Bleecker Street to Astor Place to Times Square, he's urging New Yorkers to "Pay Attention While Walking" (my favorite--can we get this on a T-shirt?) and "Don't Flick Your Butts on the Ground."

There's also "Pull Up Your Pants" and the mysterious "Clean Up After Your Horse." That last one, Jason told me, is not for the new landed gentry, as I assumed, but for "the nypd, who let their horses shit all over the place--usually bike lanes."

With all these helpful signs in place, the question is: Will New Yorkers pay attention? Or will they be too busy looking down at their iPhones?

7 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I really dig this guy, and his method of expression - I'd say it certainly represents a form of street art, and is sure as hell appropriate/needed in times like these. Maybe even the most clueless offender will notice the signs, either laughing, scoffing or seriously considering their message - and adjust their own behavior by at least a bit. If nothing else, the clean, regimented, "official" nature to the things almost forces one to notice them - they're hard to miss!

These are so great, especially the "Pay Attention While Walking." I'm so sick of texting zombies walking right into me and then still not looking up from their precious text. Run for Mayor Jason, I'll vote for you!

@Eileen: Michigan, if the angry natives are to be believed. I tend to doubt it--Michigan's outmigration can't mathematically account for the entirety of the city's population growth in the past 20 years.

"Jeremiah Moss does an excellent job of cataloging all that’s constantly being sacrificed to the god of rising rents." --Hugo Lindgren, New York Times Magazine

"No one takes stock of New York's changes with the same mixture of snark, sorrow, poeticism, and lyric wit as Jeremiah Moss... Even as the changes he's cataloging break our hearts a little, it's that kind of lovely, precise writing that makes Moss's blog essential reading." --Village Voice, Best of NY

“Jeremiah Moss…is the defender of all the undistinguished hunks of masonry that lend the streets their rhythm.” --Justin Davidson, New York Magazine